Follow along with a translation of Beowulf, along with related maunderings

28 February 2012

Smaug and The Hobbit movie

Here is Tolkien's illustration of the dragon, Smaug, on his hoard. A small thief can be seen on the right side. Like the dragon in Beowulf that clearly inspired his creator, Smaug is enraged by a theft from his hoard and flies off to punish the nearby settlement with flame.

Smaug appears in Tolkien's book The Hobbit. He describes it like this (pp. 205-6):

There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a
thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps
of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath
him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and
about him on all sides stretching away across the
unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things,
gold wrought and un-wrought, gems and jewels, and
silver red-stained in the ruddy light.

Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat,
turned partly on one side, so that the hobbit could see
his underparts and his long pale belly crusted with
gems and fragments of gold from his long lying on his
costly bed. Behind him where the walls were nearest
could dimly be seen coats of mail, helms and axes,
swords and spears hanging; and there in rows stood
great jars and vessels filled with a wealth that could
not be guessed.

Another of Tolkien's own drawings appears on the cover of the book. (The same edition I owned, by the way).

This is Smaug dying from an arrow that hit a small patch of his breast that was not encrusted with the treasure he had lain on. Beneath him, a village burns.